What Is Maturity?

Maturity is the patience, the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain.

Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of opposition and discouraging setbacks.

Maturity is unselfishness — responding to the needs of others, often at the expense of one’s own desires or wishes.

Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse.

Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, “I was wrong.” And when right, the mature person need not say, “I told you so.”

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then do nothing.

Maturity means dependability, keeping one’s word, coming through in a crisis. The immature are masters of alibi—confused and disorganized. Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business and good intentions which cannot change.

You are young only once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.